Commitments and challenges in participatory development: a Korean NGO working in Cambodia

ABSTRACT

Despite their growing significance in the development field, academic research regarding development NGOs from emerging donors, such as South Korea, is almost non-existent. This study is based on a case study of LotusWorld, a Korean NGO, and its two recent projects conducted in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Based on interviews with Korean staff and with a group of villagers in the local community, the article examines how LotusWorld’s vision and practices of participation have evolved from the first project to the second, as well as the challenges that they faced. Suggestions for further community participation are made for key actors.

En dépit de l’importance croissante dans le domaine du développement des ONG de développement issues de pays donateurs émergents, comme la Corée du Sud, les recherches universitaires les concernant sont presque inexistantes. Cette étude se base sur une étude de cas de LotusWorld, une ONG coréenne, et ses deux projets récents menés à Siem Reap, au Cambodge. Sur la base d’entretiens avec des membres du personnel coréens et un groupe de villageois au sein de la communauté locale, cet article examine la manière dont la vision et les pratiques de participation de LotusWorld ont évolué entre le premier projet et le second, ainsi que les défis qu’elle a dû relever. Cet article comporte des suggestions en vue d’une participation communautaire plus poussée pour les acteurs clés.

A pesar de la creciente importancia que en el ámbito de desarrollo han adquirido las ong que se desempeñan en el mismo, sobre todo aquellas fundadas en países donantes y emergentes como Corea del Sur, casi no han sido investigadas por la academia. El presente artículo presenta un estudio de caso centrado en LotusWorld, una ong coreana, y en los dos proyectos que ha impulsado recientemente en Siem Riep, Camboya. A partir del análisis de varias entrevistas realizadas al personal coreano y a los habitantes de una aldea, el artículo examina la evolución experimentada por la perspectiva y las prácticas de LotusWorld vinculadas a la participación entre el primer proyecto y el segundo, dando cuenta de los retos enfrentados por la organización. El artículo concluye realizando sugerencias dirigidas a los actores clave, cuyo objetivo es coadyuvar a la profundización de la participación comunitaria.

KEYWORDS:

• Civil society – NGOs, Participation, Partnership
• Aid – Capacity development
• South Asia

Acknowledgements

LotusWorld has kindly agreed to disclose its name and to share its learning processes, including its failures. This has helped increase the credibility of the present study. My particular appreciation goes to the two general managers at LotusWorld’s Seoul and Siem Reap offices (at the time of author’s visits), for their sincere and honest sharing of their experiences and opinions. An earlier version of this paper benefited from discussions with Kattie Lussier and I am also grateful for very helpful comments from two anonymous reviewers. A short summary of the case study presented here was first published as part of a synthesis study of Korean experiences included in the Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference organised by the Consortium for Asian and African Studies (CAAS) on 27–28 October 2015. This work was supported by a research fund from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Yunjeong Yang is Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International and Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea, which she joined in September 2011. Her research interests include state–society relations, particularly relating to the issues of participation in development policies and practices; women’s empowerment and gender equality surrounding work and care; and later life and ageing in communities. Her articles have appeared in Community Development Journal, Journal of International Development, Ageing & Society, and others. Yunjeong obtained her DPhil in Social Policy from University of Oxford in 2010. She also serves as Chair of the international cooperation committee of the Korean Association of International Development and Cooperation (KAIDEC) (2013–16).

Notes

1 In the sense that it has only recently joined the OECD’s DAC as a donor country (Korea being an active member since 2010) and that, until recently, it received aid and other development assistance.

2 The amount of support provided by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the main granting agency under the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Korean civil society organisations (CSOs) working for global poverty reduction has increased from US$1 million in 2004 to US$12.6 million in 2014 (http://www.koica.go.kr/, accessed 11 March 2015). Note that CSOs and NGOs are not exactly the same things (for example, private universities are not CSOs but they can be understood as NGOs) and that the amount mentioned of KOICA budget for CSO support does not include support for universities.

3 The limitation of the Handbook is that the response rate is low, at 47% of the total 241 CSOs surveyed. A key activist from civil society, however, confirmed that all major CSOs are included and the overall amount would not change much.

4 Pretty (1995) named this “functional participation”.

5 Other plagues include the inhibiting and prescriptive role of the state; the over-reporting of development successes; selective participation; hard-issue bias; conflicting interest groups within end-beneficiary communities; gatekeeping by local elites; excessive pressures for immediate results; and the lack of public interest in becoming involved.

6 Their research concerns participatory design leading to “true co-creation” involving designers, users, and stakeholders, but their implications are also applicable to participatory development projects involving international NGOs.

7 Of the total of about US$30 million of KOICA support to Korean NGOs in 2013, 34% went to three countries: Vietnam (12.2%), Mongolia (11.9%), and Cambodia (10.0%). The support by project in Cambodia amounted to US$143,247, the second largest after Mongolia (KOICA 2015).

8 This list does not include small NGOs that are not members of the Council.

9 The focus group consisted of four people, two men (including the village chief) and two women. They were aged between their late 40s and 50s, had a low education level (one to four years of education, although this is common for this generation, due to the history of the Khmer Rouge regime) and were representative of their own ‘Kroms’ (sub-groups within the village). The VDC comprises 15 representatives out of a total of 16 Kroms within the village, including the chief. The youngest member of the VDC was in their early 30s and there were only four women out of the 15 members. The interviews were carried out with the assistance of a Korean on-site staff member and a Cambodian education manager who kindly served as an interpreter between the English-speaking researcher and the village people. The interview transcription (in a mix of Khmer and English, with some additional information offered in Korean as well) was later translated into Korean.

10 Meanwhile, the number of female participants in the town dropped from 65 to 43. To come to an understanding of this phenomenon would require further in-depth study involving a survey or interviews with women in the town. This, however, does not affect the overall findings and conclusion of the present study.

11 Almost 97% of the population of Cambodia is Buddhist and Buddhist monks are highly respected in the region.

12 The annual participation rate for literacy classes was as low as 53% and agricultural training was delivered late due to the low level of participation – even later on, only 17 people participated while livestock training was cancelled completely (LotusWorld 2014).